Abstract
BackgroundAlthough the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is a major model organism in diverse biological areas and well studied under laboratory conditions, little is known about its ecology. Therefore, characterization of the species’ natural habitats should provide a new perspective on its otherwise well-studied biology. The currently best characterized populations are in France, demonstrating that C. elegans prefers nutrient- and microorganism-rich substrates such as rotting fruits and decomposing plant matter. In order to extend these findings, we sampled C. elegans continuously across 1.5 years from rotting apples and compost heaps in three North German locations.ResultsC. elegans was found throughout summer and autumn in both years. It shares its habitat with the related nematode species C. remanei, which could thus represent an important competitor for a similar ecological niche. The two species were isolated from the same site, but rarely the same substrate sample. In fact, C. elegans was mainly found on compost and C. remanei on rotten apples, possibly suggesting niche separation. The occurrence of C. elegans itself was related to environmental humidity and rain, although the correlation was significant for only one sampling site each. Additional associations between nematode prevalence and abiotic parameters could not be established.ConclusionsTaken together, our findings vary from the previous results for French C. elegans populations in that the considered German populations always coexisted with the congeneric species C. remanei (rather than C. briggsae as in France) and that C. elegans prevalence can associate with humidity and rain (rather than temperature, as suggested for French populations). Consideration of additional locations and time points is thus essential for full appreciation of the nematode's natural ecology.
Highlights
The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is a major model organism in diverse biological areas and well studied under laboratory conditions, little is known about its ecology
The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans has become one of the main model organisms in biological research, where it proved of extreme value in diverse disciplines such as animal development and genetics, neurobiology and behaviour, and genome architecture and function [1]
More recent studies focused on compost heaps and rotten fruits and showed that proliferating C. elegans populations can be found regularly in these substrates [6,12,14,16,17]
Summary
The nematode Caenorhabditis elegans is a major model organism in diverse biological areas and well studied under laboratory conditions, little is known about its ecology. The currently best characterized populations are in France, demonstrating that C. elegans prefers nutrient- and microorganism-rich substrates such as rotting fruits and decomposing plant matter. Over the last couple of years, an increasing number of studies began to assess different aspects of the ecology of this nematode, yielding a first overview of C. elegans in its natural habitat. C. elegans has been found in most parts of the world [4], only rarely in the tropics [5]. More recent studies focused on compost heaps and rotten fruits and showed that proliferating C. elegans populations can be found regularly in these substrates [6,12,14,16,17]. Rotten fruits and decomposing plant stems were found to contain populations of all stages including populations without any dauer larvae [17]
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